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	Priest Abused Altar Boy after Release from Jail, Court Told Sydney Morning Herald February 25, 2010 http://www.smh.com.au/national/priest-abused-altar-boy-after-release-from-jail-court-told-20100225-p4x4.html A judge says it is astonishing that an Anglican priest was allowed to return to the ministry after being jailed for sexually abusing an altar boy. The former priest now faces another jail term for a "strikingly similar" offence involving another altar boy, South Australian District Court Judge Sydney Tilmouth said today. Wilfred Edwin Dennis, now aged 74, was jailed in 1970 for six months for indecently assaulting an altar boy. Judge Tilmouth is now preparing to sentence Dennis, who has pleaded guilty to carnal knowledge in an offence involving another altar boy that was committed about five years after his 1970 release from jail. "It's astonishing that he went back to the ministry having gone to jail for abusing an altar boy," Judge Tilmouth said during sentencing submissions. Dennis was originally jailed in 1970 with the judge then offering leniency to the priest, Judge Tilmouth said. "She [the 1970 judge] sentenced him on the premise that he wouldn't be going back to the ministry again and not being exposed to the temptation of young boys," Judge Tilmouth said. "What happened there? "He went back to a position where he could prey on young boys again." Prosecutor Andrew Rodriguez told the court the carnal knowledge charge, which involved anal intercourse, "was not an isolated incident". Dennis was aged 40 or 41 when he abused the 14- or 15-year-old altar boy between October 1975 and November 1977. He also stood trial at the same time for assaulting another altar boy between 1972 and 1974 but was found not guilty of three counts of indecent assault and one of gross indecency. Judge Tilmouth said he was "troubled" at giving a jail sentence to an elderly man "in the twilight of his life". Mr Rodriguez replied: "It's quite possible that Your Honour will be sentencing this man to a term of imprisonment during which he will die." The case was adjourned until April.
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